Během večera jsme hráli dvě hry.

Během means during. It is used to show that something happened in the course of a period of time.

So během večera means during the evening.

A very important grammar point is that během is a preposition that requires the genitive case.

Examples:

• během dne = during the day
• během týdne = during the week
• během večera = during the evening

Because během requires the genitive case.

The base form is večer = evening.
After během, it changes to večera, which is the genitive singular form.

So:

• večer = evening
• během večera = during the evening

This is a very common thing in Czech: prepositions often force the following noun into a specific case.

Czech past tense is usually formed with:

• an auxiliary form of být = to be
• plus the past participle of the main verb

Here:

• jsme = we are / we have, but in past tense it works as the auxiliary we
• hráli = played

Together, jsme hráli means we played.

This is normal Czech past-tense structure:

• hrál jsem = I played
• hráli jsme = we played

Notice that Czech often places the auxiliary in the second position in the sentence, so you get:

• Během večera jsme hráli dvě hry.

In the Czech past tense, the ending of the participle shows the gender and number of the subject.

For we played, you can get:

• hráli jsme if the group is masculine or mixed
• hrály jsme if the group is all female

So this sentence suggests that the speakers are either:

• a mixed group, or
• a group including at least one male, or
• using the default masculine plural form

This is something English speakers often notice because English does not show this kind of gender agreement in the past tense.

Because hra is a feminine noun.

In Czech, two changes according to gender:

• dva for masculine nouns
• dvě for feminine and neuter nouns

Since hra = game is feminine, you say:

• dvě hry = two games

Compare:

• dva stoly = two tables
• dvě knihy = two books
• dvě města = two towns

Here hry is in the accusative plural, because it is the direct object of hráli.

We played what?
dvě hry = two games

With hra, the accusative plural has the same form as the nominative plural:

• nominative plural: hry
• accusative plural: hry

So even though the form looks the same, the function here is accusative because it is the object of the verb.

Because Czech usually does not need the subject pronoun if the verb already shows who is doing the action.

In jsme hráli, the word jsme already tells you the subject is we.

So:

• Během večera jsme hráli dvě hry. = During the evening, we played two games.
• My jsme hráli dvě hry. is possible, but it adds emphasis, like we played two games.

Czech often leaves pronouns out unless they are needed for contrast or emphasis.

Yes, Czech word order is fairly flexible.

This sentence starts with Během večera to set the time frame first:

• During the evening, we played two games.

But other word orders are possible, for example:

• Jsme během večera hráli dvě hry.
• Dvě hry jsme během večera hráli.

These versions can sound more marked or emphasize different parts of the sentence.

The given order is natural because it introduces the time expression first, then the main action.

Not exactly.

• večer usually means in the evening / this evening / evening
• během večera means during the evening, emphasizing that something happened at some point or over some span within the evening

So:

• Večer jsme hráli dvě hry. = We played two games in the evening.
• Během večera jsme hráli dvě hry. = During the evening, we played two games.

The second version sounds a bit more explicit about the time span.

The dictionary form is hrát, which means to play.

Here is the breakdown:

• hrát = to play
• hrál = played, masculine singular
• hráli = played, plural masculine/mixed

So hráli jsme comes from the verb hrát.

Then the past participle would normally change to hrály:

• Během večera jsme hrály dvě hry.

Everything else stays the same.

So:

• jsme hráli = we played, masculine/mixed group
• jsme hrály = we played, all-female group

This is one of the features of Czech that English speakers often need time to get used to.